Love Mends All.

Sometimes I hang on to things just because of sentimentality.  I have very few material things from Mark's grandmother but each item that she gave to me has high value if to only me.  She was not a rich woman according to standards set by today's society but she felt that she had everything.  She did give me far more than just a few trinkets as she gave me love and what riches are better than that?  Momie (the family name for this grand lady!) accepted me into the family in her own style and much before some of the others.  We soon became close friends and shared a many times together.  She taught me a lot.  Two friends..one old Polish lady and one insecure farm girl.  What a misfit pair!

I was meandering about the Little Bayou House today just thinking of Christmases past.  One of the kids' favorite Christmas holidays was when Momie came to stay with us.  She had been in the hospital and needed some extra care once she was released.  With a bit of scrambling and doubling up of kids, we immediately found an "extra" bedroom just for her.  Oh, she protested!  She wanted to be home "Just in case someone came to see her for Christmas."  We were determined and she finally relented.  The kids were jubilant!  They had never had a "Christmas Guest" before and especially not one that they loved more than this lady!  When she came to the house, she brought a small Nativity with her.  The stable was long gone.  All that was left were the three figurines, Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.  Now, the story was behind the Baby Jesus.  It seems that years before, the porcelain infant was dropped and broken into tiny shards.  It could not be repaired.   What was she to do?  Mary and Joseph looked so forlorn!  It worried her that Baby Jesus would not be there for Christmas.  She fretted for days as she searched for a baby.  Then on Christmas Eve, mysteriously, a miracle occurred! A friend came bearing gifts and among those was a small packaged wrapped in tissue.  He told her to be careful when unwrapping the tissue.  Can you imagine her surprise when she opened that gift?  It seems that he had found a lone Baby Jesus at the thrift store and thought she might like to have it.  He did not previously know that she had broken hers but something just told him to buy this figurine for her. This Baby Jesus was exactly the same as the broken one! Momie was so happy to have the family together again!  She placed the tiny figurine with Mary and Joseph and all was well in her world.  Her Christmas was complete. When she brought the Nativity Scene to our house, she insisted that she needed to make a suitable place for them.  She and the kids worked together to create what they all deemed to be a thing of beauty.  A shoe box covered in aluminum foil and tinsel was the base.  Plastic poinsettias and greenery were poked in here and there.  A few glass Christmas balls were taped to the sides.  Oh, how beautiful this was!!  And...it was.

The real beauty was not the gaudy setting that Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus were using as an abode but rather the love that was shared between that old lady and her three great grandchildren.  The new found Baby Jesus seemed to be perfect,y happy!  Mary and Joseph looked adoringly at their new child just as Momie and the children looked lovingly at their creation. This is just as Jesus looks lovingly at us..each of us. The shoe box creation is long gone.  Time took its toll on the thing just like it took its toll on Momie.  When she passed, I asked for the Nativity Scene.  Those three little figures mean so much to me.  That, my friends, is Christmas.  Not the porcelain items themselves but rather the incredible story behind the replaced Baby Jesus, the friend that cared enough to visit an old lady, the love shared between a very ill great-grandmother and three small children and the cherished memories that all of this generated.  Yep, THAT is Christmas, my friends, that is Christmas.  Love..love is Christmas no matter how you look at it.